Before my e-mail box gets filled with outraged communiques, I’d like to announce that — yes, I do know that there really are electric bagpipes. Well, electronic bagpipes.
And I actually do enjoy good bagpipe music — but I don’t see why I can’t make fun of bagpipes anyway.
Jose Angel Hevia Velasco — who performs under the name Hevia — is a Spanish bagpiper who hauled off and invented a MIDI bagpipe which he plays live during concerts.
The following video is probably his most famous piece:
Enjpy, and forgive me for making fun of bagpipes.
LawDog
Just don’t try to take your electric bagpipes on an airplane
There is such a thing as “good bagpipe music?”
You know there’s areason why these are classified as weapons rather than musical instruments.
I love the pipes. My ancestors speak to me through them, I think. The first time I heard bagpipes I was in elementary school and a man did a presentation about Scotland before the student body. I felt the pipes in my bones that day and still do nearly forty years later.
It took a few minutes for the reason Hevia’s music sounded somehow familiar to percolate through my brain. Sometime after the presentation I spoke of before I found an album at our local library called Scotch & Soul. I just Googled it and found a Wiki entry for Rufus Harley, the jazz musician who recorded it. I don’t remember any of the songs exactly, but do remember being blown away by the music. Without a recent hearing I still recommend it to anyone who loves the pipes and/or unconventional (shall we say) music.
It says magic on the screen, and it is! Thanks LD.
It is often said in Scotland (though probably by an English import) that the definition of a Gentleman is someone who knows how to play the bagpipes, but does not do so in public.
That was WAY cool! Thanks, LawDog. I always appreciate your musical offerings. (My husband and I are STILL looking for more CDs by Gregorian. That was also a great little tidbit you posted here earlier.)
Not sure if I like it or what.
I think I feel like someone used to a SAA thumbuster who has just picked up a John Moses Browning design at this point in the last century.
It doesn’t seem to carry the same soul but it’s not bad.
Sort of reminiscent of Seven Nations blending of electric guitars with traditional bagpipes.
A friend of mine has a Scottish father and an Irish mother, both of whom love bagpipe music.
When his mom plays Irish bagpipe CDs, his dad stomps around the house muttering “Damn screaming cats” in his thick burr.
When his dad retaliates with Scottish bagpipes, it’s his mom’s turn to stomp around the house muttering “Damn screaming cats” in her brogue.
Oddly enough, Andrew doesn’t like bagpipe music.
True story.
The Pipes sing to ones souls. I am a fan. Thanks, man…
Bagpipes are like the drum at a powwow; they speak to the primeval.
They aren’t meant to touch only the ear, but something far more visceral.
I know of nothing that mourns and grieves with more depth than a bagpipe-except perhaps, Frederika von Staat singing “Since My Man Is Gone.”
LawMom
As Bill Kirkenbauer used to say, “You kin get the same sound by squeezin’ a cat!”
The younger brother of a dear friend plays the pipes, and his group provided the entrance music for the bride, among other things.
The music had me crying before I ever saw the bride. Unusual wedding, to say the least.
Boojie somehow found a piper in South Texas, and that was the only music for her wedding. He piped the guests into the grey stone chapel and then did the processional and recessional. Yes, Dog and his brother and the rest of the male attendants wore kilts.
LawMom
makes me want to enjoy some haggis and offer you the honor of cutting the cross in it.
and the old joke goes :
Why are bagpipers always marching????
To get away from the music.
Love the pipes, thanx. I even like “Papa’s got a brand new bagpipe” byt the Band Of the Black Watch
Weapon of War?
Weapon of Torture, more like.
At Rendezvous, you can tell when someone far off is playing the pipes … the nearby dogs start howling.
I have to put a plug in for some of my favorite bagpipe music, Wolfstone. Pipes and fiddle and guitars and drums … what a mix.
they say that “music hath charms to sooth the savage beast”. bagpipe music is more likely to inspire him go out and knock his enemies over the head.
“gunner”
after finally getting the thing to load i suppose i’m just a cranky old traditionalist, but i didn’t hear anything that sounded like bagpipes there. the didgeridoo solo at the beginning was nice though. i do admit to a problem, i have difficulty hearing midi as “music” in general.
“gunner”
“You know there’s areason why these are classified as weapons rather than musical instruments.” I’m proud of my Scots ancestors, but you must be thinking of the Scottish pipes. The Irish make beautiful music with the pipes, but the best I can say about Scottish piping is that once you get used to it, it can be quite inspirational – for centuries it has inspired the Scots to go out and kill someone.
I’ve never heard Spanish bagpipes. I hope I can get this to play at home.